This means that entertainment sector are looking for the cheapest ways to get music. One of the most effective ways to get music that are licensed under creative commons. Everyone seems like to use a song for free nowadays to cut project cost, except for some.

Here is a better way for an absolute beginner: License your song under creative commons.

Basically if you plan your song to be licensed under creative commons, you stating that:

1. You still own the full copyrights of the song and the work will be attributed to you.

And this not mean that under creative commons, someone can claimed the ownership of your work. This is not “public domain” where anyone can claim a work under their name. If you see a creative commons logo, this means this is not a public domain work right away, you must read the license carefully.

Also if anyone will use your song , for example as a background of a movie soundtrack, you should see your name at the end during the movie credits section.

2. You can either let users use the song for commercial or non-commercial.

This is a tricky thing, to let commercial sectors use your song, it needs to be licensed for commercial purposes. Of course, if you are the songwriter/publisher, your license should allow work that should be used for commercial reasons. Under creative commons, these things can be easily setup.

One of the best ways to increase song exposure is to have the song licensed for televisions, films and advertisements. The music directors in-charged of looking a specific song might be interested in using your songs for their application, so make sure you allow your work to be licensed commercially.

Bear in mind that since this is creative commons, you will not be paid for any licensing fee.

3. You can state whether users can alter your existing work or not

If you do not let users to produce a derivative work of your existing work, you can state that also in the creative commons license. For example, say you have completed recording a song with your vocals and you do not let anyone do another version, then you should disallow modifications of your work as stated in the creative commons.

4. You can state the jurisdiction of your license

This is the territorial aspect of the license. Make sure the country that you would like your song to be exposed should be the one stated in the jurisdiction aspect of your license.

Now that we have the basic information pertaining to licensing the song under creative commons. We are now ready to start with the process of how to informed others that your work will be licensed under creative commons.

Step 1. Go to Creative commons website to generate the license.

The URL is: http://creativecommons.org/license/

Step 2. Specify your terms in how you would like your song to be used:

Step 3. Click “Select License” and copy and paste the HTML code generated to the exact page URL where your song can be found. In this way, say you have a myspace profile or any other artist music profile, any persons that would like to use your song can easily know that your is for free and licensed under creative commons. This will help to increase the chances of song exposure.

How to Link to This Site:

It will appear on your page as:

Make your own song:Free Music Lessons and Songwriting Courses

Consumer thinks music is not a good asset and should be made for free. It is why breaking into music business is like climbing a “90 degrees slippery cliff”, and every music entrepreneur is faced with a lot of threats to ownership, things such as piracy, illegal downloading seems to affect music business badly. It is why many people will just go to the internet and download file sharing programs to get those songs. This is tough for the business and that affect sales., But when I say it is like climbing cliffs, it means every entrepreneur will eventually succeed in the long run. File sharing will be overtaken by government powers (protecting constitution and copyright laws) and that will either be mandated to pay licenses or else will be gone. File sharing promotes song performance due to viral nature of the songs, it helps song promotion (the positive side of file sharing).

On the other side ,music industry thinks songs are a good asset. And I agree with this.

The explanation is more technical and involves complicated marketing scenario that cannot be comprehended by average music consumer. First, songs are recognized by government as a property to be owned by someone else, it is why there is such thing as “copyright”.

The person who holds the copyright is the legal owner of the song, just like a “land title” is to a “land owner”. The owner of the song (holder of the copyright) earns the right to publish and earns money from the use of the song, just like vacant lot rentals is to a real estate owner. There is no joke in this business as there are documentations involved too. Again if there is a land title certificate (for real estate brokers), there is also a copyright certificate for music publishers/songwriters.

Songs always increase in value, unlike other markets. This is one of the strengths in this business. If you have just crafted a very good song, then it means a good future for you. Licensing cost seems to increase in value, so as the mechanical licensing rates for recording labels.

When I say long term is that it will take time for songs to really accumulate value. I observed that this is a bit sluggish industry when it comes to processing payments and that one music publisher should be patient. Some of the contracts dictate that you will get paid only if the song gets cut, or for example if the film is released, earns money. One of the common contracts is about mechanical licensing. You can read more about that in this Taxi article: Learning Where The Money Comes From.

It really depends on what type of agreement being entered. But so far as songs are concerned, if you have songs out there being played in radio and getting constant exposure, it will remain for a long time and tend to accumulate more in value.

This also strategy dependent as music publishers who will stop promoting their songs and getting it used anywhere means, sooner or later these long term producing assets will get affected. A hit song has a life, just like other commodity. The good thing with songs, is that it can be re-used to other purposes and only in specific area. This is where marketing strategy in the part of music publisher is highly important. There is no such thing as dead product or worn out product in music publishing. I even remember when I was a kid, the song “Unchained Melody” gets insanely re-popularized due to the movie “Ghost”. The original release of that song is around 1965.

This tells every music publisher and songwriter that songs can be re-born, re-popularize and earns even more profit. This advantage unlike any other commodities is a huge advantage and that also makes that songs as a long term producing assets.

If you are songwriter , consider to become a “publisher”. Laws of copyright says that you have publishing rights when you own the song copyrights. If you own the publishing, you get 100% of the share. You can start by putting up your office, or you can start online like my music publishing: www.musicforlicense.net. Any things are possible if you can start with a plan and have some determination to work those things out. Success should follow in the long run.

How to Link to This Site:

It will appear on your page as:

Make your own song:Free Music Lessons and Songwriting Courses

Cost of courier: 2500 pesos
Copyright fee: 2200 pesos
Total: 4700 pesos
Number of days to arrival: around 1 week max (for using express mail)

Converting this to US dollar at 48 pesos per dollar: $98

Expensive. I do a research online of what are the safest and cheapest online copyright options. Online work can be completed with less than 50$. You can save a lot of money if you will a work online. First let me tell you the important things when you are doing copyright application online:

1. Do not trust third party online copyright processors that are not reputable enough. I am not going to recommend these type of providers as there are many of them but you can find some of the trusted ones by doing a Google.com search for a term such as “File Copyright Application Online”.

I have bad experience with these third party online copyright processors, one website guarantees me 2 days processing at more than 100 dollars. The reality is that they complete the work in MORE THAN A WEEK! When I ask for refund, they said they have just submitted the package on that day to US Copyright office (same day I ask for refund)

Do not believe in guarantees and prepared to risk yourself , your time and your money if you like to avail these third party online copyright processors

2. Take note that these online processors will still have to process your data in digital form, then print it to a hard copy for your documents as well as burn those songs in the CD. And finally send the package to US Copyright office. This takes time and it is why they are expensive.

3. Watch out for Fraud! Do not transact online or submit your work in the area is not secured. You can check if it is secured if you can find the https:// in the browser address bar for their submission page. See picture below:

In Firefox: https (secured) can be seen on the address bar:

In Internet Explorer, it can also be seen in the address bar plus you can even check the security if it valid by clicking the “golden padlock”.

Make sure the security belongs to the website you are transacting at the very moment NOT to the other website. Feel free to walk away if it does not pass the security test. This is to ensure that any information you are submitting are encrypted.

RECOMMENDATION: The best way to file copyright online can found in US Copyright Website itself. It is cheap, around $35 dollars and you can upload your work DIRECT to the US Copyright office without having to fear of being lost and ignored by third party copyright processors.

Advantages:

1. You can pay using credit card.
2. It is direct to US Copyright office.
3. You do not need a courier anymore.
4. It is secured, and this is the exact URL: Eco Online System (note: It requires you to register and login first)

One disadvantage I have seen is that it will timeout every 30 minutes, so if you have one very large compressed file that will take more than 30 minutes. It will be disrupted (data lost). In this case, US Copyright recommends to break it down into manageable pieces so that it will still be uploaded completely within 30 minutes. Good luck to your filing!

How to Link to This Site:

It will appear on your page as:

Make your own song:Free Music Lessons and Songwriting Courses

A complete song (music , lyrics and recordings) is protected by copyright. Someone can only use a song if they can obtain some form of license. This license could be exclusive and non-exclusive. Exclusive means that once you license the song to someone, you cannot re-license the song again to another person. A non-exclusive license is the the complete opposite.

You may not aware of this but if you are buying a CD in store, the money you have paid acts a form of “license fee”. License like any form of contracts have terms and conditions, this means that once you have paid money for the CD, you agree to use the songs only for your own benefit or personal use. In other words, you are not allowed to replicate the CD and re-sell it to another buyers. Also you are not allowed to play this CD in commercial establishments like big restaurants , theaters, malls except you pay some form of “performance royalties” to the songwriter.

What will happen if you offer you song for free. It implies that you are still the copyright owner of the song but anyone can now use your song for free, it acts as a sample that everyone can use. I think broadjam does a pretty good marketing job here, by allowing their members to label their songs for free, it makes it easy for consumers to test their songs, thus encouraging a good exposure to artist overall. Good exposure leads to sales. The only shortcoming is that if we treat songs like a “shareware” is a bit hard to control unlike softwares.

In shareware software, once it expires after 30 days for example, it will not work again unless the user will download or purchase a workable license.We cannot do this with songs. Also offering songs for free still needs some license that songwriters should entail into some form of contract, in writing with the users. Broadjam does not have this feature and as a songwriter/publisher of the songs, I hope they will add some form of online contract that we as “writers/publishers” can state the usage of the song and state the terms and conditions of the free for license song contract.

If users cannot be controlled or does not have a copy of the license we would like them to sign for our free song offer, then this service is not beneficial and could lead to confusions in the long run. We would like to control the usage/ users of the song even they will use it for free, so that we can trace who are our customers using the free license.

Again, this move by Broadjam is a pretty good move to increase exposures of us, the songwriters. But if they can sort out the above issues, then everything will work smoothly between the songwriter/publishers and the consumers.

What is my recommendation if you are a broad jam member?

a. I highly recommend reading their newsletter if you are a broad jam member. It discusses very well whether offering your songs for free will be suitable in your case.
b. If you are serious about publishing and avoiding messing up in the future by not having executing a fully agreed license for free song usage between you and the user, then wait until broad jam fixes this issue. It is really hard to trace who downloaded or use the song. Also to what are the terms they have agreed or limitations on how they can use the song for free.

Good luck

How to Link to This Site:

It will appear on your page as:

Make your own song:Free Music Lessons and Songwriting Courses

1. You are the writer of the song melody and lyrics.
2. Your song is performed by someone else or you have recorded it yourself.
3. You spend recording the songs or have someone record your songs.
4. You have to take responsibility of your songs as the “publisher”.
5. You are affiliated in songwriter performing rights as both the writer and a publisher.
6. You are affiliated with an agency that will collect mechanical royalties for your songs.

In details:

a. Make sure you have filed and registered all your songs in the US Copyright Office.By registering it, you have the copyright registration number for your entire work title. And you can use this during the licensing process to prove you are really the legal owner of the songs. At the same time, protection of your songs by registration means you are legally protected.

b. Obtain a written contract from all performers or other persons contributing the completion of your song in the process called “clearing the rights”. Clearing the rights means that your customer wants to be sure that you have the legal capacity to claim ownership. For example if you have written the song, the team which will carry out the execution of the music production project will be:
b.1 Songwriter- you
b.2 Performer/ Artist
b.3 Producer
b.4 Mixing engineer/ Recording engineer
b.5 Mastering engineer

What you will do is to initiate a single written document with all of them sign in a piece of paper that pronouncing all the song rights are yours, and that they claim no ownership of the songs. This process is called “clearing the rights”. If you have financed the recording and you have paid the performer, you can execute a “work for hire” agreement/contract and that you have hired them to perform and record the songs. Then you own both the copyright of the song lyrics, melody as well as the recording.

Remember that to be fully legally protected, if you like to own also the recordings of your songs. You have to file Form SR in the US Copyright. Owner of the songs lyrics and melody does not mean you are the owner too of the recording or the other way around. Unless you file both Form PA and Form SR in US Copyright.

At this stage, you should now have:
a. Copyright certificate of your songs.
b. Clearance from performers and engineers of your song.

The next stage you will do is to officially start your music publishing business. Only by music publishing (the business side of music) where you can earn royalties and income. So the next required step is:

a. Become a member of songwriter performing rights society for you to be able to collect performance royalties. This includes ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.
b. Register both as a writer and publisher in those performing rights.
c. Register all your songs in their database, only by registering your songs that they can monitor the performance royalties earned.
d. Register your music publishing company in the same time as your “copyright registration name”. It just could be your name. This is needed to prevent any confusion when it comes to song ownership. If the author/copyright registration name is “John Doe”, you might as well register your name in ASCAP as a publisher “John Doe”. And you will name your publishing company also as “John Doe”. This creates consistency and will prevent confusion to royalty collectors in your behalf. Register with your local government and get some business permit or company number. This business license is important.
e. You can open a bank account under your company name so that all income are going to this account.

At this stage, you now have all the complete documents needed for your business. And the next step needed is to have forms for your licenses. “License” is needed for someone to use your song for commercial purposes. These licenses are forms of agreement and contracts. I suggest you know you target market very well as it dictates the price of obtaining licenses. This will ensure that all cost of licenses by your customers are keep at a reasonable amount.

Finally when all are set-up, it is the time to set up a website. Website is a very powerful marketing tool online and help spread the word of mouth faster than having no website at all. More than 80% of the people are using internet to find information, so this a good strategy to market you songs. For your website to be successful it should have these following functionality:

a. An online catalog where your prospective customers can completely see a list of your published songs that can be played online. It is important that they can only streamed the songs but cannot record or download it. This protects against unwanted downloading.
b. Each song should contain complete information like the songwriter of the songs, performer, clearances, or cases where it can be used (say movie soundtrack or commercials), lyrics of the song.
c. The most important is to link to the contact for every song in your catalog, this will enable them to contact you for quotes or licensing.
d. There is a search function where potential customers can search using either a Title of the song, theme, tempo, mood or any song classification. It could be genre also.
e. A song rating will be helpful for them to select or prioritize listening good songs in your catalog.
f. Promote your site until you get targeted traffic.

Once you get customers, document and track all licenses and coordinate them with the ASCAP, BMI or Harry Fox Agency as well as other songwriting organizations. This is for them to properly tracked royalties and to properly pay to your account.

Most publishers too need relaxation after years of hardship to reward success.

Link to This Site:

It will appear on your page as:

Make your own song:Free Music Lessons and Songwriting Courses